Latest / Postcards to the Universe / Julie Ann Segal – Change Your Space to Change Your Life

Transcript

Julie Ann Segal – Change Your Space to Change Your Life · Postcards to the Universe

0:08
Welcome to Postcards to the Universe with Melissa Capria. Do you believe in magic?
0:14
What if you were told that all you had to do was get a
0:17
little creative and work a magic spell to bring anything you can imagine into your
0:23
life. Here on Postcards to the Universe, we will share manifesting tips,
0:29
postcards, creativity, abundance, and prosperity. Here is your host, Melissa
0:35
Capria. Hey everybody, and welcome to Postcards to the Universe with Melissa creating
0:42
the life you crave. So if you guys can hear, I do have
0:47
a touch of laryngitis, but let me tell you it's so much better today
0:51
than it was the last few days. I mean yesterday I could barely talk
0:54
it all, So hopefully I sound okay. I usually go into a lot
1:00
in the beginning of my show, but today we're going to jump in really
1:02
quick with my guests because of my voice. But I want to share a
1:07
little bit about me to my regulars. Thank you so much. I really
1:11
appreciate you being here. And if you're new and joining me for the first
1:15
time, welcome, and I hope you keep coming back. Just a little
1:19
FYI, we do always put the show up on a replay, So if
1:26
you can't listen to a show live, you can always catch a replay on
1:30
Own Times Radio, their archives, or on my website. I put it
1:36
up as a podcast, which is Postcards to Theuniverse dot Com, and you
1:40
can find out everything I'm doing over there. I have a couple of workshops
1:44
coming up, so instead of me going into it, just check me out
1:48
over there. But I did want to mention to those of you who are
1:52
listening for the first time that I am also and author and I have a
1:57
book and it's titled Postcards to the Universe, Harness the Universe's power and manifest
2:00
your dreams. And I'm doing live readings from my book on what am I
2:07
doing it on? Oh, I'm doing it on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn
2:10
and YouTube. I do five minute videos so you can follow along, or
2:15
you can find the book on Amazon and Barnes and Nobles. So, like
2:21
I said, I'm going to get to my guest because I want to speak
2:25
to her and I'm really excited to talk to her today, Julie Ann Siegals.
2:30
So I'm going to read you her bio. So Julianne Siegel shares her
2:34
approachable guide to Fung Shue centered interior design that sits at the intersection of spirituality,
2:40
energy, work, aesthetics, and personal connection. She provides room by
2:46
room guidance, plus focuses on the big picture, the interplay between goals,
2:52
intentions, and mindful design choices. Change your space to change your life.
2:57
Provides the necessary tools and steps for discovering your true desires, reimagining your surroundings,
3:05
and creating profound comfort. She will enable you to turn your home or
3:09
workplace into a space that reflects your authentic self. With her advice, examples
3:15
and stories from more than thirty years of experience, learn how after stripping away
3:21
the mystery around functui, you can invoke positive change through design and build a
3:27
better future. And this is a quote by James von Prague who who is
3:32
a spiritual medium. He says in Changer's Face, to change your life.
3:38
Julie gives a very practical approach in mixing known ancient tools together with a crisp
3:44
designer's wisdom and instructs how you can enhance your life by altering your personal environment
3:51
and in turn creating the greatest life you ever dream possible. That is a
3:55
really wonderful. That is a really wonderful quote about about Julie's work. So
4:00
if you want to know more about her, you can go to her website
4:04
and I'm gonna spell it out for you. It's metrointeriors dot com. That's
4:10
Metro m E T R O Interiors I N T E R I O r
4:15
S dot com. Welcome, Julie, how are you? Thank you good,
4:20
thank you for having me here. Very excited to be here. I'm
4:24
so excited to talk to you. So do you prefer to be called Julie
4:28
or Julie Anne? I usually go by Julie Anne. Okay, So if
4:34
you can call me Julie, it's gonna be okay too. All right,
4:38
well, no, I'm gonna go by what you're usually called, Julie Ann.
4:42
So for everybody who's tuning in today and is listening, I know what
4:46
funk shue is, but many people have no idea what it is, what
4:50
you do, or or what that even means. So let's start there.
4:55
What is fun shui? Well, sung shue comes from China or four thousand
5:00
years ago. It's a philosophy, not a religion. Some people get mixed
5:04
up and it's not a religion. It's a philosophy to create balance through the
5:09
art of placement. So it's working to improve the flow of positive energy in
5:15
your home or workplace so that space better supports you and your family or you
5:21
know, whether your office, you could do it in your office, you
5:24
could do it in any kind of space. But it's a way to just
5:29
make the energy feel more comfortable and flow and more positive in your space,
5:34
and becoming very mindful of what you're doing in your space. So you know,
5:42
for example, I'm just going to go into kind of the big the
5:47
main issues I see, just the very beginning stages before you start to like
5:53
put intention into your house is to work with your clutter. You know,
5:58
a lot of people end up keeping a lot of stuff they don't need,
6:01
and it creates a lot of chaos center in our lives when we have too
6:05
many things around us. And you know what is clutter. Clutter is things
6:13
you do not use or love. You want to surround yourself with happy,
6:17
joyous, positive things. And if you ever look at the objects that you
6:21
have surrounding you, some of the things have positive things to say. A
6:27
lot of them have stories that come with them, and some of them are
6:30
not so nice stories, So it's okay to let go of those things.
6:33
It's better to let go of those things that don't have anything positive to say
6:39
to you. Also, clutter is things that are untidy or disorganized, so
6:46
we know that feeling. So have you ever felt it was chaok in your
6:50
office and realized internally you felt chaotic too? So that kind of is how
6:57
that will affect you. And also too many things and too small of a
7:02
space where you feel cramped. I've known people that have too many things and
7:09
it causes havoc on their bodies and health problems because there's no breathing room and
7:15
you feel constricted in your life. And also anything unfinished, be it physical,
7:21
emotional, mental, or spiritual. For example, we all have those
7:27
like knitting projects that are up in our closets that we never finished and you
7:32
know we started maybe five years ago, and every time you open that closet
7:36
you might just get a little bad feeling and not even be conscious of it.
7:41
So it's important to decide, Okay, I'm going to finish this in
7:45
the next month, or I'm just going to let it go. It's okay
7:48
to let these things go. Well, actually bring your energy up. Yeah,
7:54
well, that's funny that you mentioned that about clutter, because I cannot
7:58
handle clutter at all. Like I realized about myself that if my space is
8:05
cluttered, my brain is cluttered. I can't think I don't function as well.
8:13
So I keep my space very, very organized. Now. I also
8:16
work with my mom. We have a couple of group homes. We take
8:20
care of the special needs. I do a lot of office work and she
8:24
is the complete opposite. So when I come into her, when I come
8:30
into her office, it literally makes me crazy. And it's so funny because
8:35
my mom has attention deficit disorder, so it's not surprising to me that,
8:39
you know, because she's on a million thoughts at once, and it shows
8:43
when you walk in her office. I'm like, oh my god, Mom.
8:48
You know, I don't know how people can function and clutter. And
8:52
it's interesting. I understand that either I'm very much like you like I always
9:00
you know, have to have everything in good working order and let go and
9:03
not have too many things. And it also looks more beautiful when you keep
9:07
a little more minimalist, and it doesn't have to be so minimalist that there's
9:13
nothing there but you know what I mean, It just feels so much better,
9:18
So clutter, you know. And I it's interesting, this is something
9:22
new I learned this year, or maybe it was last year. I found
9:26
out that I had ADHD, and I thought I knew people that have had
9:33
that and there a mess, like their spaces were a mess. And my
9:37
doctor said, well, maybe I'm so much like this because I knew what
9:43
to do to help myself, like that's the only way I can adjust the
9:46
space to make to help me to be able to function in this world in
9:54
a possis way. And I really think that's you know, what I did
9:58
is I'd been doing fun schway without knowing it from a very young age.
10:05
So well you started. You're an interior designer right at your background? Yes,
10:09
yes, I tire designer. So I just have to say that,
10:16
first of all, when I was a kid, I spent so much time
10:20
laying in my room wondering what would make it feel good? So in some
10:26
shway, you're not just you can be in tear design and make it look
10:30
good, but I was thinking what would make it feel good? And I
10:33
also spend a lot of time decluttering, organizing, like I would know if
10:37
someone moved something one inch in my room. It was kind of crazy.
10:43
I was a little nuts. I'd calmed down after having four kids. I
10:46
had to relax a little bit. But I move move, you know.
10:52
I would move the furniture in my room until it felt right, and looking
10:56
back, I would I ended up putting my furniture in the correct spaces for
11:03
the Fung Shue way. So I did, like, for example, a
11:07
bed should be in a command position so that you could see the door when
11:11
you're laying in the bed, and that's you know, I remember moving it
11:16
three times till I got it in that position and left it. So it's
11:22
just, you know, I tell people think what they did as a kid
11:26
and what they love to do, because I enjoyed doing this. You know,
11:30
there are other things I enjoy, but I'll fit into what I do
11:33
today. So if there's someone out there that is looking for what you want
11:39
to be in your life, what you want to do for your life purpose
11:43
or whatever, look back to what you did as a kid, and that
11:46
will give you a very big clue to what direction you should go in.
11:52
But later in life, when I went to college, I was in college
12:00
for the first semester and I had this amazing what was it, roommate and
12:07
she was already a year older than me. She was account she was starting
12:11
counseling and social work and that's what my mother, mother is, or was,
12:16
and she brought me. She made me feel comfortable. Because of that,
12:22
I felt so at home. But I came and I went. I
12:26
was starting in the school of Business. I wasn't sure what I was going
12:28
to do. I thought, I'll just go into business. And you know,
12:31
even though all through high school I was an artist. I did art,
12:35
music and all those things, but I was going to go into the
12:39
school of business. And I came back after my first semester and my roommate
12:45
had left, and I was devastated. But there was another person in the
12:48
room. She wasn't there at the time, but I saw that she decorated
12:52
her side of the room so beautifully, and this was a life changing moment
12:58
for me. My mom when she brought me back to school, she saw
13:01
how upset I was that my roommate was gone. She said, let's go
13:05
decorate your side of the room. So we went to jac Penny and got
13:09
new bedspread and you know what, posters and plants. It was all very
13:15
affordable, but we did what we could and we made it look very nice.
13:18
And the next day at breakfast, my mom's like, why don't you
13:22
think about interior design. You know, it's more than just decorating. It's
13:26
space planning and lighting and you know, a lot more things. And I'm
13:30
like, oh, yeah, I forgot that's what that's what I love.
13:35
So the next day went and I found out that Incheior Design was in the
13:39
School of Fine Arts, and I was thrilled, Like, instead of doing
13:43
these accounting classes, I was going to get to paint and draw and design.
13:48
And that's what I did, and it changed. It was like a
13:52
great you know, I never looked back. Here I am. But then
13:56
once I got out into the world and started to be an in cheer design.
14:00
It was probably in the late or mid to late nineties when sun Shui
14:03
came around and went to a presentation on that, and then that's when it
14:09
really hit like, oh my gosh, this is who I am, this
14:13
is all that I've been doing, and this is much more I need to
14:16
learn this. So that's where I got connected. I went to fun Shoi
14:20
school. Actually at the beginning for myself, I was going through a difficult
14:26
time in my life and I wanted to help myself. But upon getting my
14:31
certification in fung Shuei, it was so natural to just combine it with interior
14:35
design. Yeah, well it makes so much sense. It makes so much
14:39
sense. Yeah, because if you're already coming in with a client and you're
14:43
designing a space for them to utilize the principles of fung shui, So why
14:48
don't you share what are the principles of fung shui for people who are like,
14:52
well, what are you talking about? Like, you know, I
14:56
mean a lot of my lesseners know already about energy because of the guests that
15:01
I have on right, Like, you know, some people are like what
15:03
what what are they talking about? There is there's five really good principles that
15:07
I could talk to you about. Yeah. So the first one, everything
15:11
is energy and everything is connected. So we are connected to our surroundings and
15:16
what we have. Even if we have them, you know, our items
15:22
or things stored in closets or storage rooms or whatever that doesn't you know,
15:28
negate them. They're still part of you. You know, you have to
15:33
totally let them go. To let go. But everything is energy and everything
15:37
is connected and your space is a reflection of your life. So therefore you
15:41
can change your space to change your life. So if you're an external environment
15:48
is not in sync with who you are, if it's unbalanced or cluttered,
15:52
it can cause a lot of havoc in your life. So you really need
15:56
to in front way we think about you know, who we want to be.
16:02
I always ask people does your home reflect who you are, who you
16:07
want to become? You know? Or are you living in the past,
16:11
And those are really good questions to see if your environment is reflecting who you
16:18
are, who you want to become. So we worked on that. And
16:22
then space should be organized in nature, meaning it should flow. And I
16:29
do talk I bring into the book biophilic design really bringing nature. That's just
16:33
bringing nature into your space and how positive. What there's a lot of positive
16:38
outcomes and to help you to bring nature into your space. But another principle
16:45
is one thing I was talking about clutter causes confusion. That actually causes a
16:51
lot more So we want to always keep the cluttered because just a few other
16:56
things that clutter does. It keeps you in the past. As I said,
17:00
it can cause anxiety. I think you said that nervousness makes you procrastinate
17:07
and could actually make you feel ashamed and put your life on hold so that
17:11
you're not maybe inviting people over and socializing as much. It's even like a
17:18
fire hazard and to cost you financially because a lot of times you can't find
17:23
what you're looking for, so you just go out and buy more of the
17:26
same things. It's true, so exactly. So your desires also allow your
17:36
intentions to come forth. So it's important to know what it is that you
17:40
want. And one thing we work with when we do fun shui is called
17:45
the fun shway bogwa. So the bogwa is a tool or map that you
17:51
lay over the blueprint of your space. It's a grid that we did not
17:56
divide into nine equal spaces over your floor plant. Each area corresponds to a
18:03
specific area of your life. So are you familiar with the bogwa? I
18:07
am, yes, i am. I do my vision board based off of
18:11
the bogwa, so yes, I am personally I am familiar with it.
18:17
Yes with it. That's a fun way to do it. I do teach
18:19
vision board classes too, so I love doing that and will be having one
18:26
early in the year online. Oh yeah, So you divide it into nine
18:34
equal areas, and this is what my chapter eight is about, and change
18:40
the space to change your life. So you have all the graphs and everything
18:42
to help you to do this, because if every home was perfectly square rectangular,
18:48
it would be easy to do. But a lot of times, you
18:52
know the Bagua map, there's areas of your home that will extend past the
18:57
Bogua map, and you know need to learn how to deal with those.
19:02
But each of these nine areas, like I said, represents a different area
19:07
of your life. For example, one is abundance and prosperity. Another area
19:11
would be same and reputation. You know, one's love and relationships or a
19:18
marriage partnership. But I'm just going to give you example how to use it.
19:23
I hope to helps understand. Say, a lot of people want more
19:29
money, right, it's not something others want, so you would want to
19:33
activate I would say, the find out abundance and prosperity area of your home
19:38
and activate it. So each area corresponds to a color and an element,
19:47
and that's one way you can start. So the color of abundance and prosperity
19:51
is purple, and the element is would so you can place something purple in
19:57
that area. Some prosperity is always in the far left corner of your home.
20:04
You can also not to confuse you, but you can lay it over
20:07
each area, each room too, layer and layer things. But to keep
20:14
it simple, let's just visualize a main floor plan of a home and you
20:18
can lay it over that. So the left far left area back area of
20:23
your home you would find abundance and prosperity area. Now, if it's cluttered,
20:29
if you're having financial troubles and you find that that's cluttered, that's a
20:33
sign that maybe you're find you know, your finances is cluttered or stuck,
20:40
you're stuck in that area. So first thing you want to do is decluttered,
20:45
and then you can add maybe the color purple. Maybe it's with a
20:49
purple piece of artwork that has a lot of purple in it. Maybe decide
20:53
to paint that area purple if it makes sense, you don't have to,
20:57
you know, or a purple sculpture. So you place that with the intention.
21:07
Ask you declutter and place this with the intention to bring in more sort
21:11
of have better finances or bring in more money. Abundance could mean a lot
21:17
of things, you might want to be calling in more friends. You know,
21:21
whatever it is that you want, it doesn't have to be money.
21:25
Then the element is wood, and we work with different elements. There's five
21:29
elements wood, earth, water, fire, and metal. And if you
21:33
were to bring in a wood element, you can actually bring a piece of
21:37
furniture that's wood. Maybe there's a wood floor that you just put the intention
21:41
into. Wood is also associated with the colors green and blue, so you
21:47
can also use those colors instead with paints or art, or it could be
21:53
a beautiful piece of art of a forest with a lot of trees. Do
22:00
that, right, so you don't have to think like, oh, you
22:03
know, my color scheme is all neutrals. I don't really want to paint
22:07
that. I want to bring in more abundance, but I don't want to
22:08
paint that room. Right, There's other things you can do. And when
22:14
you say the far left, you mean when you walk into your front door,
22:18
the first thank you Okay, okay, thank you. Yeah. So
22:22
the boga in the type of funct way I do is always set up from
22:26
the bottom of it is at the front door. Is at the front door.
22:30
You'll have right, Yeah, you'll have to look at. You could
22:33
google Bogua maps, b A, g U A. You can get my
22:37
book and chapter eight it's going to show you exactly what area corresponds to what
22:42
so you can see that you could go. You could do each individual room
22:51
like so for people who want to bring romance into their life, could go
22:56
from the door of their bedroom looking into their bedroom. The romance area,
23:00
which I don't remember, is that the far left, I mean when you're
23:04
far right and far the far right, far right relationship relationship and it's basically
23:14
to do with either a marriage or a business partnership. Okay, that area,
23:18
and that's a if your master bedroom is in that area, or that's
23:26
your where your bedroom is, that's always a good sign for romance. If
23:32
that's where mine is in the far when you walk into my front door,
23:38
it's to the far right right, that's where my bedroom is. Yeah,
23:41
it's great. Always some of the other things in bedroom sonchue, if you
23:48
want to call in a partner or have a relationship, you know, be
23:52
smooth sailing or whatever. You often want to have two night stands to eat
23:57
hind stands and two lamps. You you don't want to have, you know,
24:04
pictures of your children. And in a master bedroom it should be a
24:10
more you know, safe haven for for a love relationship. You could have
24:15
a picture of you and your spouse or significant other in there, which is
24:19
good to have. So that's just a little And what is a good color
24:26
in the element for that for that area? The color is pink? Can
24:30
you pink? But the element is earth? That would also in the earth
24:37
tones or rocks a beautiful you know, big geode or rocks for there.
24:45
You know, a big piece of rose courts would be nice. That's what
24:48
I have in my bedroom, the rose because yeah, it's an earth element,
24:52
but it's also pink. Mm hmmm. Yeah, I have one in
24:56
mind too, so funny Cahart and I keep it in my bedroom. Right,
25:02
that's so interesting. Well, yeah, it's fun to it's fun to
25:07
do it too, and just kind of think about it and design the spaces
25:11
in your house, you know, to just make the energy flow, you
25:17
know better, because you know, everything is energy, right, so we
25:21
want our energy to flow. That's when to flow and think about what it
25:27
is that you really want, like when you're doing this, you know how
25:30
they say thoughts become things, yes, which they do. Well, and
25:34
I am very much on that line of thought because they do become things.
25:40
Well, if you're putting the thoughts into your home and you're letting go of
25:42
all the rest that you don't want so working on a whole other level.
25:48
There's a lot of ways to manifest, but this is one way to do
25:53
it with your home. And it's nice to layer, like I work on
25:57
the thoughts becoming things because that does take work. You have to become aware
26:03
of what you're thinking absolutely, you know, oh god, yes, Well
26:08
that's what my whole book is about. It's all about manifesting and creating.
26:12
A manifesting postcard is sort of instead of doing a whole vision board. You
26:17
take a section that you of your life, something you want, and you
26:21
just work on that on a postcard and then people send it to me and
26:25
when it becomes there, you know, in the reality, it shows up
26:29
in their life. We share it, we talk about it, we tell
26:32
the story, and oh so I have full stories in the book. Yeah,
26:36
so that's kind of gonna have to get your book. Yeah, I
26:41
love that stuff. Yeah, yeah, it does sound like something you would
26:45
love. But I just looked at the time. So let's take our break
26:48
here and then we'll come back in just a few minutes and we'll continue the
26:52
conversation. So everybody stay tuned and we'll be back in just a few minutes.
27:03
Conscious Media for Conscious Minds own Times. Host your show on IOMFM,
27:08
the radio network of ome Times Media, one of the more recognized brand names
27:14
in the conscious community and is backed by the extensive marketing reach of ome Times.
27:18
Hosting a show on IOMFM immediately connects you with our extensive, dedicated community.
27:25
Everyone has a story. I have a story, You have a story.
27:30
We all have a story. As I see it, you have three
27:33
choices. Allow your story to define you, use it to excuse you,
27:41
or utilize it as a method to empower you. It's your life. You
27:47
have the power. You choose rewrite your story on finduniquely you dot com.
27:56
Imagine yourself being transported to India, to the banks of the Gangha and an
28:00
ashram in Rishikesh. Visualize that you are welcome to Satsan with an American Sanyasi
28:07
who shares the wisdom of her Guru. Your visualization has manifested joined Satfi Bagawati
28:15
Saraswati for inspiration and transformation. Every Thursday at eleven am Eastern on Old Times
28:22
Radio. Ascending Hearts is no ordinary dating site, but a spiritual dating site
28:30
with a purpose to link you with your soulmate. We engineer the serendipity so
28:34
you could trust that you will attune with someone that has the same matching vibration
28:40
as you. Ascending Hearts the conscious dating site for the spiritually aware. Try
28:45
Ascending Hearts for free Ascendinghearts dot Com. Hi, I'm Melissa Kaprio from Postcards
28:56
to the Universe, Creating the life you crave. Do you believe in magic?
29:00
What if I told you all you had to do was get a little
29:03
creative and work a dream spell to bring anything you can imagine into your life.
29:08
Well, guess what I've got the spell for you. Postcards to the
29:12
Universe, a global movement for Manifestation, is a casting magical tool for you
29:18
to use whenever you want. How does living and passion sound to you?
29:22
Join me in my movement where you get to create in the magical playground.
29:26
Let's think outside the box and do some playful conjuring. By casting out our
29:30
desires with a manifesting postcard, we explore our hearts and allow the alchemy of
29:36
our dreams to appear, and don't forget to tune in each week here on
29:40
Home Times Radio with my show Postcards to the Universe, Creating the Life You
29:45
Crave at four pm Eastern Time, I share tips on creativity, abundance and
29:49
prosperity, and you will be introduced to the coolest guests, trailblazers, mystics
29:55
and creatives who enrich our lives. Hi, and welcome back if you're just
30:06
joining me. I have a Julie and a Seagal with me today and she
30:11
is a Fung Shway centered interior designer, and we're talking a lot about Fung
30:18
shwaying our space and a lot from her book, which is called Change Your
30:23
Space to Change Your Life. It's really interesting. This stuff's like, I
30:27
love this stuff so fascinates me. So I wanted to ask you something,
30:32
and I had this thought when you were talking about thinking of creating our space
30:38
for what we want right, what we want to bring in, and you
30:41
said, sometimes we pulled on to things that are clutter from the past.
30:48
Now, what about photographs, like family photographs. I'm a big like I'm
30:56
a photographer also, so I have a lot of old back and white photos,
31:00
especially of family members that are that I think are like kind of artistic,
31:06
you know, and I have a we have a lot displayed, you
31:08
know, So like what would your advice be on that, because obviously that's
31:14
the past, you know, memories, but the good past, you know.
31:18
Make sure you look at all they're putting out and they have good members
31:23
and feel good. But I want to make it a point to let you
31:29
know that one of the Bagla areas is called family and that's a great area
31:33
to display family photographs in that area. And I heard you say that some
31:40
of your family members were creative, a lot of creativity. There's you can
31:45
also put them in the area of children and creativity with the intention to you
31:52
know, bring your creativity up another notch or so. And so those would
31:56
be two good areas to put the man. Just make sure that they they
32:01
have happy memories for you, and okay, they're not too much clutter,
32:07
like the too many things and too small of a space. You don't overdo
32:09
it, right, so it gets you know what I mean, I understand.
32:15
So yeah, So like if you're if it's something that you love and
32:20
you love looking at it makes you feel good. It's worth keeping. But
32:22
let's say you're keeping china that was passed down from your family and you have
32:28
it displayed, but you may have some every time you look at it it
32:31
maybe makes you think of not good family times and things that were painful.
32:37
That might be something you want to let go of. Let go of exactly,
32:42
and it's okay. And like antiques, those are you know, like
32:47
sometimes people think they have to keep a heirloom in the family that they don't
32:53
even like. Right, that's not a positive thing for them. It's okay
32:59
to give it to a differ family member that might love it, or let
33:02
it go. It's okay to do that. I'm sure you know. You
33:07
know relatives that have passed on they I get the feeling that they're okay.
33:14
They don't care if we let go of these things. On the earthly level,
33:17
they know that they're in your heart. You know that you still have
33:22
memories of them that you could take a picture of it. So you if
33:24
you want to remember at some level and then let go of the actual piece
33:29
if it's not fitting in with your aesthetics or who you are, how you
33:32
want to design your home. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah,
33:37
yeah, I don't think they really care what we're holding on to personally,
33:40
right, I mean my own perspective, But I could be wrong,
33:44
but I doubt it, right, Like I feel like a mediums have a
33:50
lot of times they don't. I don't think they do. I don't think
33:54
they do. Right. But on the other hand, you might have one
33:58
piece that you absolutely love was a hand me down, and you know,
34:02
you might want to stay clear it. So because anything you bring in that
34:06
was once other people's, you're gonna it's going to carry their energy, the
34:10
positive and negative, Right, So you may want to do some things like
34:15
clean it really well, maybe you sage around it. They'll do those things
34:20
to space clear before bringing it into your space. Yeah, So I wanted
34:25
to ask you because you've mentioned something about something you had a big thing in
34:31
your life, a divorce, and how you used the FUNCTIONUI to create and
34:37
design to create your ideal life. What what did you do? Like what
34:40
does that look like for people who are right going through something right now and
34:45
are thinking I got to shift the energy and I just don't know what to
34:49
do. You know, well, I really first took very good care of
34:54
myself during that time and really went within, but I chose not to take
35:00
really anything with me as far as furniture dishes. I took a few of
35:07
my favorite pieces of artwork that I absolutely loved, and I took, you
35:12
know, obviously, my personal belongings. I didn't take any furniture, even
35:17
though I had bought some nice things. I left it all to my ex
35:21
husband because I didn't I wanted a fresh start and so but you know,
35:27
when when you go through a divorce, sometimes it is financially and emotionally draining,
35:32
and I was no exception. But getting to the other side when I
35:38
got my new apartment, when I knew what I could do. Got my
35:42
new apartment, I didn't have any furniture except a bed to bring with me,
35:49
and I didn't really have the money to buy anything new at that time.
35:52
So I needed to really enhance the wealth area and abundance, and I
36:01
put this beautiful piece of art. I did have a little money to buy
36:06
a couple pieces of art, and I was able to get a good deal
36:07
being a designer, and I bought a couple pieces, and one was this
36:12
wonderful, beautiful bouquet of this flower shooting up everywhere. Was kind of imaginative
36:17
and it had a lot of purple in it, but it also was so
36:21
joyful, and I put it an abundance and prosperity area. And also I
36:27
picked an apartment that had an extension and wealth. So an extension when you
36:31
have an extension, and you really have to look at the bagua maps to
36:35
see how that happens. But it's when when your home extends past the bagua
36:42
in the wealth area that can cause a bless that can be like a blessing
36:45
in your life and that area living in that space, so I knew I
36:50
had that knowledge. So I had that going and I put up my thing
36:53
and I didn't bring all this old stuff with me. I kept it simple,
36:59
and within a year my business quadrupled and I was able to get all
37:05
the furniture. Within two years, I had all the furniture that I wanted
37:07
for the apartment. And the following year, the apartment complex that I lived
37:13
in hired me to design all twenty hallways, you know. So it was
37:19
a big job for me at that time, and it made me really happy,
37:22
and I had a lot of amazing things happen. You know. I
37:27
thought that was the end of my life. After my divorce, but actually
37:30
it was the beginning of a whole new phase that was like amazing. So
37:36
you never know what's going to happen on the other side of something like that,
37:39
right, and trying something better, right, Yeah, So that's yeah,
37:45
Oh okay, that's really really interesting. So anybody who's going through a
37:50
divorce starting over, you know, make sure you read her book or reach
37:57
out because you may have some wonderful tips. You know, because people who
38:00
are going through a divorce the stress of it and the pain of it,
38:04
and it's like because most people are fighting over this is mine, no,
38:07
this is mine, and you're saying, no, let it go, start
38:12
start over, right, Yeah, that's a good way to look. I
38:14
wanted to start over, I didn't, Yeah, And I just trusted and
38:19
I did what I needed to do, and I took inspired action. A
38:22
lot of times you get little intuitive nuggets on what to do next, what
38:28
to do next, and you just take one day at a time. And
38:30
during my divorce, I really did take one day at a time, so,
38:37
you know, and good friends and family were there too. That's always
38:40
a must to have support like that of course as well. So when you
38:46
get a client and they want you to come in and look at their space.
38:52
What is your process? And I want you to talk about because you
38:55
do share a little bit about for all of us listening some little adjustments that
39:01
we can make in our space to really create some serious change. So I'll
39:08
let you go, O, go ahead. So what do you do first
39:10
when you meet a client? Like you come in and you change everything.
39:17
Like I have so many different types of clients now, but like sometimes they're
39:24
hiring me to do interior, you know, interior design, but they like
39:30
that I am a sung shui. They think I'm going to make their house
39:34
feel good, which I do, but then they don't necessarily want to go
39:37
deep into it, like with the boga and stuff. So you know,
39:43
I feel out what they're looking for. And I still use fung shuei concepts
39:47
like the way you might place a furniture and the colors and balancing you want
39:52
to balance all the elements and work, you know, bring in nature.
39:58
Things like that. I'm gonna do so certain clients. I'm doing that now.
40:04
Sometimes I'm doing more like consulting or someone calls me in for funchway specifically,
40:10
sometimes we we you know that I'll go in and then we'll look at
40:16
the bog well, we'll lay that out, We'll look I'll take a walk
40:20
through their home. And now I'm doing a lot more virtual now that the
40:24
book came out and I'm reaching more people, I'm doing more virtual and people
40:29
send me pictures and we can do FaceTime and that type of thing. So
40:34
I'm helping people that way. Just the other day was interesting. I was
40:37
working with the gal and she just was so excited because she just bought this
40:40
new home and she's gonna fix it up as total, to fix her upper
40:45
and I noticed that the house was L shaped, and I was really a
40:50
little nervous because that can cause, you know, not be the best layout
40:53
of a home, right, But on the part that was, you know,
40:59
on one I did the L. She was going to put her bedroom
41:01
and it had its own entrance, and I said, why don't you make
41:06
that your office instead? And sometimes when you have an L shape, you
41:10
could take both areas and lay out the boga separately in each you know,
41:17
square a rectangle. So if we were to lay the whole bog go out
41:22
using the L, we would have been missing pieces which are challenging areas.
41:28
Sure, So instead of looking at like that, let's kind of separate it.
41:31
Make one part of the l the office and the other part. And
41:37
she loved that idea, and I feel really good about separating that for her
41:43
and I think that will be better. But you know, just looking each
41:49
each home is step is very different. But I can give you some tips,
41:52
yeah, like some like I know you do have that too, like
41:57
some tips for all of us as a little simple thing that we can do
42:00
that everybody can do just to make the space feel better and have the energy
42:06
be better right in our home. So one thing is keep everything in good
42:10
repair. So imagine having you know, the doorknob of your bedroom doesn't work,
42:17
and every time you walk into your bedroom, you're frustrated and it doesn't
42:22
feel good. Well, that energy doesn't just stop there. That energy follows
42:27
you right into your bedroom. That frustration, right, and that's definitely not
42:32
the energy you want in your bedroom. Or if it's your front door and
42:37
you walk in your home and you're trying jiggling it, trying to open it
42:39
up, it finally opens, it comes in and comes out to your your
42:45
spouse or your kids, or even the grocery clerk. If you're you know
42:49
where you are, and it causes you know, when things open nice and
42:53
freely and there's nothing behind doors. I tell people not to keep objects behind
43:00
doors. Then this has a nicer flow and you feel good. That's fun.
43:07
Another thing I can point out is the front door should be a different
43:10
color than anything else on the home. The front door is like what we
43:15
call the mouth of che so t is the other word for energy, and
43:22
it's where all the energy enters your home. It's important to walk in your
43:28
front door and see what that feels like because a lot of people you'll goo
43:30
use the garage door, come and see that way or a different door.
43:35
But it's good once a week if that's the case, to come in through
43:37
your front door so you feel the energy of what that feels like. But
43:44
anyway, you don't want it to be the same color the front door as
43:49
like the shutters or the sighting or anything else. So it makes it stand
43:54
out, It makes it feel good. It makes people know, you know,
43:58
helps them to know where the front door is. Okay, okay,
44:01
good energy. Let's see. I always say you talk about bringing nature in
44:12
now like young plants. You talk about plants now for those like myself.
44:20
Yeah, for some reason, plants do maybe I'm not putting them in the
44:24
right spot in my house. They don't do well. I don't do well
44:30
with live plants in my house. I used to say that, used to
44:34
I love plants as a kid, like I love nature. And then I
44:37
got into my twenties started having my own apartments, and every plant would die.
44:43
And it wasn't until the last like ten years. I had an ex
44:46
boyfriend teach me on how to maintain plants better, and he totally helped me
44:55
so much. I have a list here of some plants though, Let's see
45:00
I can find Yeah, some people, like my girlfriend. She lives in
45:05
California. I'm in Florida, but when I visit her, I love her
45:08
the way she has her space because she is she has a green thumb,
45:14
and her plants are everywhere and they just look so beautiful, like she takes
45:20
such pride in her plants, And I'm like, why can't I Some people
45:27
have green thumbs. But I did learn from this boyfriend and like not to
45:30
overwater, where to water, where to put them right, like those lamps
45:37
that add extra light, you know, for plants. But I'm going to
45:42
give you a few low maintenance plants. Yeah, that are wet plants for
45:49
for for the best energy in our home. Where's a good placement for plants
45:54
according to that part, I think that well. Okay, according to a
46:00
Bagua, you could put plants in the family area because plants the element is
46:07
wood and plants are a wood element. Or you could also put them in
46:12
abundance and prosperity. Okay, those two areas are two of the best areas
46:17
because it's about growth both of those. But also I just I want to
46:24
give you some low maintenance plants. Just a few would be Chinese evergreen.
46:30
I have a zz a zz plants as it's called, and it's it does
46:35
really well, an aloe, bamboo, even jade if you don't overwater it,
46:42
maiden hair, maiden hair, and ferns. And in Suctuay, we
46:46
never want to use really much dried plants or dried flowers because it's dead energy.
46:53
Okay. I was going to ask you about that because that's very stylish,
47:00
you know. And then a lot of people on fake plants, what
47:04
about fake deaders? Okay, you can do Okay, Nope, not their
47:08
high quality latex or silk. They almost look real, and I have a
47:14
combination of both in my house because I really love that feel. But I
47:17
don't won't want to take care of a million plants, although I love them
47:21
so much, and the phoes can be amazing with the right you know,
47:29
the right latex and silk pieces, and when they're designed properly too, especially
47:35
for those who are listening who have animals that eat and kill all their plants
47:40
exactly, you can still get a nice feel something like that. Now,
47:45
the one good thing about real plants is they do clean the air for you.
47:52
Yes, so that's a positive thing, you know, But there's you
47:58
know, different reasons to use plays too. That's so funny that you said
48:01
alo, because I have an aloe plant outside on my patio and I've had
48:07
it for ten years and I do nothing and it's the only thing that's ever
48:13
lived. And I live in Florida, so it gets a lot of sun
48:15
and rain, so I really don't have to. But it just is so
48:19
funny because I don't even barely touch it, and it's the only thing that
48:22
I your one plant. We'll try some of these others now if you don't
48:29
believe me. So when when you what do you talk what is what is
48:35
a reinforcement or an adjustment? Like mean in factual way? Yeah, okay,
48:42
So there's when you remember when I said in the bundance area, you
48:46
add something purple or something of a wood element to create your intention. So
48:52
there's what's called the three secrets of reinforcement. So you don't want to just
48:57
place it there. You to make you win a little ritual out of it.
49:00
So you place it, and when you place it, you want to
49:05
feel good. You want to feel confident. You don't want to be tired
49:08
or angry, keep your arms uncrossed. So you place it, and then
49:15
you want to think of your intention. So why you're placing it there?
49:20
What you want to have happened in your life. And you need to imagine
49:23
and feel as if your intention has already happened. You know, that's basic
49:28
manifestation. So with your thoughts there, and then what we say in funchui
49:32
is a little Sanskrit phrase and it's omani pad me um. We say that
49:39
nine times you said it. Maybe you've heard that I have, Yeah,
49:46
I say that nine times? Why nine because in China, way back China
49:52
is a very auspicious number. I want to understand. So we do that
49:58
to honor you know, honor that. But you know, I always tell
50:01
people if there's a phrase or a prayer that they like, you can do
50:07
that nine times. It's really just about setting it into motion and being able
50:13
to let go to watch what happens. Mmm, you know, okay,
50:17
Yeah, So you don't want to come in and do something if you just
50:22
had a fight with somebody, or if you're angry, or you know,
50:24
you don't want to be do you don't want to be changing, making it
50:29
put right and then putting that energy in that space. Okay, right,
50:34
and that's calling making an adjustment. So we make adjustment or in functual make
50:38
it putting in a cure or something like that, you know, cure or
50:43
adjustment, and then you could you know, yeah that makes sense, yet
50:50
be positive, feel good. So what would be a couple of for sure
50:55
like nos like you would say like nos like I heard, I guess I
51:04
heard, like the drive, the dried plants, the dead energy would be
51:07
something you don't want to do. So what her couple knows that we should
51:10
not be doing to have the good you know, to have energy flow good
51:15
in our space? Right? One thing like I think about telling people,
51:21
like when we're laying out furniture, there's a like a big sectional when you
51:25
walk in the room blocking. You want to lay out the furniture that you
51:30
can you can walk into it and feel good and not make it Like a
51:35
lot of people do that and they don't even realize because they're fearful of the
51:37
outside world and they'll put they'll block put energy in a blocking okay, and
51:43
they're not aware of that. So that's one thing I can think about.
51:49
And don't keep art up that you don't love, Like if you have art
51:53
that was like, maybe you're in your forties and you still have pieces up
51:58
from when you were in college and it doesn't even make sense to you anymore.
52:04
Let those go and bring in bring in new art, Okay. So
52:10
looking for things that make you feel good. Now, I heard that people
52:15
say you shouldn't have a mirror in your bedroom. I was just gonna say
52:20
me, I was just gonna talk about mirrors. You heard me, You're
52:22
intuitive, I am. So is that a no no like for me?
52:29
Okay? So I have an apartment, right, so I have very limited
52:32
space, so I have a full length in my bedroom, but I have
52:37
a scarf over it. Ye that I can. Now, that's one way
52:43
you can like adjust it. Okay, so you can put a something over
52:50
it when you're you know, when you're not using it, because it's a
52:53
lot of energy. I guess if you're not having trouble or do you have
52:58
trouble sleeping? No? Never, I'm a good sleep Okay. So,
53:01
so like, if something's not good, it's not great to have a bedroom,
53:07
especially or a mirror your bedroom when it's facing the bad that's the worst
53:12
area. So if you're facing the bad, yes, it's facing bed.
53:17
Somebody else told me that. So I have this beautiful red scarf, right,
53:22
Yeah, you know you did the right thing. Okay. It's funny
53:24
because when I go to my boyfriends, he has a big mirror, and
53:29
I'm like, we have to put the you know, a big blanket over
53:31
it, okay, because I'm so sensitive to that. You're sensitive to it.
53:37
That's so interesting. Yeah, okay, I heard that one, and
53:40
I'm trying to think, is it Is it true? Having a red door
53:45
front door is good? Luck? Is good funk shui? Is that true?
53:49
Yes? What I tell people. So it's very traditionals to make a
53:52
door red in sun Shuey and it's really pretty and people love it. But
53:57
you know what, if it's not your thing or works with your house through
54:00
your colors game that you want, it just could be any color that you
54:04
love that you want to paint the door. So I mean there are colors
54:08
to me as a designer that are richer like if you just say green,
54:13
there's greens I would not want to in front door, but there's the deep
54:16
greens that I would. You know, Okay, but red's traditional traditional,
54:22
it's traditional. So we only have a couple of minutes left. So is
54:25
there anything that you want to mention that we didn't get a chance to talk
54:30
about. Do you have any other questions? No, just and tell everybody
54:38
the best way to find you and your social media or email you if they
54:44
have any questions, and your book and everything. So my books on Change
54:50
Your Space to Change Your Life is on Amazon or Barnes and Noble R.
54:53
Llewellen dot com. You can find it a lot of places just put my
54:59
name in. But you could also go to my website at metrointeriors dot com.
55:05
You could see I have a lot of blog posts on there, about
55:07
a lot of different stories, but I have a lot of fun before and
55:10
after photos that are nice to look at, and if right when you go
55:15
to the front page, if you sign up for my newsletter which I send
55:17
out every other month, and then any you know, I do a lot
55:22
of great articles on different design and before and afters art related type articles.
55:30
This last one I did about the chemical free home. And also can communicate
55:37
with my clientele on any specials I might be having or anything. It's good
55:42
to get on there and I don't over bombard people with stuff, so that's
55:46
good to know. So I wonderful. Yeah, and my email Juliet Metro
55:52
Interiors dot com. Oh, Julianne, I was such a pleasure having Thank
55:58
you so much for joining. Thank you today, guys check her out all
56:01
right, everybody, thank you for listening to Postcards to the Universe with Melissa
56:07
creating the life you crave. And I'm wishing everyone a wonderful week filled with
56:10
joy, abundance and love, peace,